Bible, Bros & Brew
Bible, Bros, & Brew is all about helping you navigate your relationship with God in practical, real-life ways. Hosts David and Phil dig into scripture—'chopping up the word'—and bring it to life with insights you can actually use every day. And while they’re at it, they share their favorite 'brews'—don’t worry, it’s not booze! Just a solid lineup of classic coffees and teas to keep the conversations flowing.
Bible, Bros & Brew
Walking in the Spirit: The Toxic Mindsets of Wrath, Strife and Sedition
In Galatians 5:19-21, Paul offers a list of destructive behaviors known as "the works of the flesh", all of which reflect an attitude that is--to one degree or another--antagonistic to God's will and His ways. In this latest installment of our series titled "Walking in the Spirit", David and Phil continue exploring this list, this time stopping to discuss the toxic mindsets of wrath, strife and sedition.
gotbrew@biblebros.net
This week we're going to continue conversating about the sins of animosity. That sounds deep, and it is deep actually, but once you hear us break down what animosity is and the different sins from within Galatians, chapter 5, that live in that category, it's all going to make perfectly good sense to you and hopefully you're going to see how those sins, even though they may have been a part of your journey up to now, are going to be a part of the change, the upgrade in your life's journey. Up next on Bible Bros and Brew, I'm David. With me tonight, of course, is my beloved co-host, Philip, and then down below us, we've got the eternal Ryan Holderman and his also eternal friend John.
Speaker 1:We're glad everybody's here Tonight. We're going to be continuing on in our study as we look at Galatians, chapter 5. We're looking down around verse 20 because we're talking about the works of the flesh. We're talking about the works of the flesh and we've been talking about. We started off with the sins of immorality, we moved on to the sins of idolatry and now we're moving on to the seven or eight groupings here that talk about the sins of animosity. We're going to remind you what animosity is in just a minute and then we're going to dig into these. But before we do, let's find out what's in everybody's cup tonight. All right, philip, let's start with you. What's in the cup?
Speaker 2:You know, david, I've never done this before on Bible Bros and Brew. I'm excited to announce that because we had a freeze warning this evening, I figured I'd try to roll with some hot chocolate instead of coffee. So I've got my big cracker barrel, big blessed mug, and then the hot chocolate I'm using is called Silly Cow Farms. Oh nice, uniquely something. What does that say? Uniquely Vermont?
Speaker 1:Okay, oh, of course.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, this is really good, though it's super flavorful. Man, I poured way too much in this mug. It's like a 20-ounce mug, I'm not sure, but yeah, so it's all about hot chocolate tonight, dude.
Speaker 1:All right, that sounds good. That sounds lovely, phillip, is there any whipped cream in that cup?
Speaker 2:Rocking man, I'm just rocking hard with this thing.
Speaker 1:All right. How about you, Ryan? What's in the cup?
Speaker 2:Uh-oh.
Speaker 1:Uh-uh.
Speaker 2:All right, we'll come back.
Speaker 1:We'll go to you John, first. All right, Can you hear me now? There he is.
Speaker 2:By the grace of.
Speaker 3:God, there you go.
Speaker 2:What you got drinking.
Speaker 3:I've got a new one. It's the Trader Joe's French Roast.
Speaker 1:Oh, how's that. Trader Joe's proclaims to have good coffee.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's strong it is. This is probably one of the darkest roasts I've ever had. It's even kind of got me. Yeah, it's got me good. Got some high octane happening there. It's good, I like it. What about you, david, what you got.
Speaker 1:Nice, the boy bought some Trader Joe's to the table.
Speaker 3:Shout out.
Speaker 1:You know, I have to tell you, my coffee choices have been uninspired over the last few weeks, and so, to be honest with you, I'm just drinking a cup of again, my Sinfully Vanilla from Red Barn. And what I've done is I've mixed it like I told you before. I also have put a shot of not a shot, but a scoop of caramel coffee in with it, from Red Barn also, which I did previously, and it's just got me happy and it's okay for me to be happy and not have the newest, greatest coffee this week, although I do feel a little naked that I don't have a fresh new coffee.
Speaker 1:So probably next week I'll be bringing some new stuff to the table.
Speaker 3:We believe in you, David. Yes.
Speaker 1:I believe in me, too, to do better. Nothing wrong with a little coffee alchemy every now and then. So you're good man. How about you, john? What are you drinking? I am drinking should I say what were you drinking?
Speaker 3:I was just I was enjoying a great cup of brown sugar coffee, actually with some brown sugar, what's it called Like the little syrup, like a little cinnamon syrup flavoring. I am a sucker for some brown sugar and then also some cinnamon coffee creamer as well. This thing is like.
Speaker 1:John, I have a sneak creamer as well. This thing is like John, I have a sneak that you that you're a sucker for any coffee that's got more than about 10 pounds of sugar in it.
Speaker 3:I'm having a great time because the moment my face lit up when I took my first sip about an hour ago because I'll say it this way Coffee Eureka lit up when I took my first sip about an hour ago.
Speaker 1:We call that moment coffee, eureka.
Speaker 3:And I will be crashing tonight. Very, very well, it's great, though it really is tasty. I think I'm, I think I've been in my sugar era, sugar coffee era.
Speaker 2:Yes, in your sugar arc as we speak.
Speaker 1:My new phrase of the week, and I'll just say it for you too, john I think you need to touch grass, touch grass.
Speaker 3:You know what I'll take that word.
Speaker 1:Because grass has no sugar added.
Speaker 3:Exactly, I do occasionally miss black coffee. I will say that.
Speaker 1:Oh, no more black coffee for you. You're on the sugar train now, kid.
Speaker 3:That station is way gone now.
Speaker 1:All right, that's what we're drinking. That'll help fuel the spirited conversations. Now we'll get into a little bit of the word. Hey, I want to encourage you these are meant to be like Bible studies, right? So I want to encourage you to grab your Bible, grab a notebook and pen, because you can take some notes here and you can dig in with us. And again, we always, always, always encourage you don't let your study stop or start alone with us, you can always dig in, work through the scriptures for yourself. You probably can get a sense for where we're going next in some of the cases. So feel free to dig in. The Word is all about us taking the opportunity to dig in and just become elevated by God's Word and to tap into revelation as God reveals Himself to us through His Word. Speaking of God revealing Himself to us, his word Speaking of God revealing himself to us.
Speaker 1:We've got some good stuff to go through tonight and we've been talking about the works of the flesh and we've said several things, and I want to encourage you to go back and watch previous episodes if you haven't, as we've dug in to walking in the spirit.
Speaker 1:But one of the things that we talked about was the fact that one of the characteristics of the works of the flesh is number one. They have a way of compounding upon one another. Usually you're not just dealing with one work of the flesh, but one kind of leads to another, and you can find two or three of them, a lot of times working together in people's lives. The other thing is that the works of the flesh are truly the works of man's own doing. So it's not spirit-led for you to walk in the works of the flesh, but that is flesh-led, it's fleshy, it's humanistic. So I just want you to be thinking of those things as we look at our next couple of works of the flesh. But before we do, philip, do you have any kind of thoughts or anything that stood out to you over the last couple of weeks thus far that you want to talk about before we get?
Speaker 2:going. One of the things that kind of just stood out to me when I was reading over Galatians 5 and Paul was rolling out that list of the works of the flesh and he said something. He said first of all the works of the flesh. And he said something. He said first of all the works of the flesh are manifest, and that's what it says in the King James, and that that word means obvious.
Speaker 2:He said the works of the flesh are obvious and they are these and he goes into fornication, adultery, et cetera, et cetera, and then he gets down to the end of it and I thought this was fascinating. He said um, of the, which I tell you before, as I've also told you in times past, that they that do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. So it's like Paul had. This wasn't the first time the Galatians had heard this stuff, you know, and we talk a lot about how. You know, during this time when Paul was going around traveling to the different churches, he would write letters to the ones sometimes that he had just visited or to the ones that he couldn't get to, and he would tell them and encourage them hey, make sure this letter gets circulated. You know, through X, y, z church. And he even mentioned in Colossians. He said, hey, make sure this gets circulated in the Laodicean church and make sure the letter I wrote to Laodicea gets circulated over here. So there's some stuff he probably wrote that we don't even have record of anymore.
Speaker 2:But I just found that fascinating with the Galatian church, like he had obviously had to hammer this point home about the works of the flesh. He probably had dealt with quite a few people in that local group that either came out of some kind of crazy lifestyle, you know, like that, and we know the general social climate of that time was kind of wild. You know they were doing stuff and living kind of fast and loose in some of these ancient cities in some of these ancient cities. But so I just thought to me I love stuff like that because it shows, in my mind, more of the authenticity of these letters. It's like wow. You know this isn't the only time Paul mentioned this. This actually happened in real life. This is not something that's just. You know, he wrote it one time and it was picture perfect. No, he had to remind people of stuff sometimes, so a little bit of a sidebar, but I thought it was pretty cool.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that's good. I think you bring up a good point too, philip, that there wasn't. There wasn't one, just one church, and it was the church of Galatians. It was literally, there was the city of Galatia, and in that city there were many or several churches that were there that Paul was the apostle over and overseer of, and so the concept, even when you talked about Colossians and Laodicea, and there was one other area that was right there, and they were all in close proximity to one another, and so their proximity made it possible to share letters so that they could get the same good teaching that Paul had. So, yeah, that's, that's a really good point.
Speaker 1:Philip, as we look at these works of the flesh tonight, I want to talk about, or remind you, what we talked about as the sins of animosity. Last week, we defined animosity as the strong feeling of dislike or hatred, often accompanied by ill will or resentment, that can lead to active hostility. It can exist between individuals, groups or even countries. So, with strong feelings of dislike and hatred dislike or hatred often accompanied by ill will or resentment, that can lead to active hostility. And last week, as we began to look at the first part of the sins of animosity, which were hatred, variance emulations. We saw that animosity in place.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:We saw exactly why animosity was the right word, that underpins and is the backbone, literally, of all of these sections and one of the other things that, as we ended the session last week with emulations which is another word for jealousy which is another word for jealousy, and one of the things I want to reread that really stood out to me was that point. That said, at the root of all sentiments of jealousy is the basic posture of ingratitude to God, a failure to accept one's life as a gift from God, to envy what someone else has, to fling one's own gifts before God in unthankful rebellion and spite.
Speaker 2:Goodness.
Speaker 1:When you look at these words and as we worked our way, not only through jealousy, but really the word variance is discord and really factioning and then hatred. There's just so many ugly other things that work within these characteristics. You have like a word that describes like a group of nastiness, and I just thought it was so to me, phil, that one, that jealousy one, really stood out to me and it's for that definition of flinging one's own gifts before God and unthankful rebellion in spite. And that stuck with me even after we finished recording the episode, because I just decided that I needed to appreciate God, not for what I have not become, but for what I am and what he's going to bring me to.
Speaker 2:That's good man.
Speaker 1:And just to be okay, in that we're often, always driving to some place you know and driving ourselves hard, and we look around and see other people and their progress and what they're working on and we get jealous about it. We look at it with envy, wishing that was us wanting it to be us, asking God why it's not us and it never quite works out the way that we want it to. But if we would just submit ourselves to God, he'll take care of all of the stuff and bring us to exactly where we want to be and we'll look back over our lives and find out. I don't know how I got here, but it's perfect.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's beautiful and God did it.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:We want to give him the credit.
Speaker 2:That's good, man, that's good. It's like Ecclesiastes said God makes all things beautiful in their time, and it's. It's one of all things beautiful in their time. And it's one of those things where you know we're going to operate in different seasons of life at different times, each one of us Right, Because, let's face it, man, nobody has the exact same path to walk. It's not, that's not how God designed this thing. Each of us has an individual path and we have to find out and tune in to what God says to us individually through his word. But he knows how to speak to us by the spirit, to show us and direct us and nudge us in certain areas and things like that, to where we can begin to walk that path out. And it may take longer, even if you're on a similar path to someone else. It may take longer for you or it may take longer for the other person.
Speaker 2:The trick is not to compare, Um, because I think you guys probably heard this before, but comparison is a thief of joy, you know, and it's true, Um, there's something about comparison that automatically starts to stir the wrong things in you. You know, it's just it's like a no win. You know, when you start comparing yourself to this person or that person, and it's interesting, too, that most of the time when we compare, it's always based on what we don't have, what we can't do, what we're not good enough at, and things like that. It's all. It's a moving target and you'll never hit it, in other words. So why even go there, man? Be content with how God made you and the path that he has you on. That's been one of the biggest lessons I've had to settle into man over these. You know however many years it's been, so for sure.
Speaker 1:That's good, philip. So now let's find our way into these next few words. As we're looking at, we're basically in the bottom half. Well, not the, I'd say, the bottom half. Uh, we're in verse 20 and we're about midway through that 20.
Speaker 1:We've already talked about idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, and now we want to look at this word wrath. It's a work of the flesh and and I told you guys, I've been walking through this and reading through this using a new American commentary that I think is fantastic. You can pick it up on Amazon, but it's the New American Commentary for the Book of Galatians, but you can also use, you know, if you're using like a Bible study app or you've got some concordances at home, I would encourage you to walk along and read along using your I said concordance and I meant commentary and I meant commentary, sorry, guys, use your commentary and read through, because you get some deeper understanding for people who've been studying. They've been studying the Greek and the Hebrew and digging into the times when all of these things are going on, and it helps to give you a range of understanding that deepens your study and deepens your walk with the Lord and one of the things that it calls this wrath here, in this verse, it calls it fits of rage.
Speaker 1:Uh, fits of rage wow and so, ryan, if you wouldn't mind, let's look at this also in um in the bible hub there. So in bible hub, the word wrath comes from the g word thumos, which means wrath, anger, passion, fierceness, indignation, an outburst of passion. It's derived from the Greek verb thuo, meaning to rush or to breathe hard or to breathe hard. The hebrew equivalent, often associated with thumos, is hema. I believe that is or kama, which also denotes wrath or fierce anger. And you will some. It gives us some good examples. Proverbs 15, 15 and 18 says A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger calms a dispute Also in.
Speaker 1:Isaiah 13, 9, it says Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, cruel, with fury and burning anger, to make the earth a desolation and to destroy the sinners within it. And then it goes on to say in the New Testament, thumos is often used to describe a passionate, intense form of anger or wrath. It conveys a sense of boiling, agitation or a sudden outburst of emotion.
Speaker 1:This term is frequently associated with divine wrath or human anger. Now we can talk. Remember, one of the things we've been saying to you guys is that what matters is context, the context that you're reading it in. So we know, when we're talking about the works of the flesh, that, in the context of what we're reading in Galatians 5.20, he's not talking about divine wrath, he's talking about human anger, and so we're looking at human anger that is intense, and often destruction. It is distinct from, or gay, another greek word for anger, which implies a more settled or abiding state of mind. So, uh, we see there that this is an intense anger, and, um, the one thing, though, that I I have not seen and did not see and I might come across it is whether it's a, or maybe I just overlooked it. You know, anger or fits of rage are pretty dangerous in life and, unfortunately, I think we're seeing a lot more of them pop up.
Speaker 1:Have you ever noticed, as you're popping through or you're doom scrolling YouTube or TikTok or whatever it is that you're doom scrolling and all of a sudden you just see, you know there's a video. Just a fight breaks out in the middle of nowhere. And this dude starts pounding another dude and just seems to be unable to stop it's crazy. Situations like that, where just people go on and fits of rage that are ungodly altogether. What's your thinking, Phil?
Speaker 2:I've definitely seen the same thing as you've seen, and there's story after story after story on the news of just folks just losing it. You know, I mean I saw one, a kid who got mad at his parents because they took away his PlayStation or something and he murdered both of them. You know, it was horrific stuff sometimes and it's just this and that's what gets me. It's so weird. It's like some of these people, um, it could be something small, but then it escalates so quickly into full-blown, complete, insane violence. It's like, were you really that pent up with that much anger? You know, like I mean, it's just wild man, man, I don't know. I do know that and I'll say this prisons are full of people who did not figure out how to control that anger, you know.
Speaker 1:Oh gosh, isn't that? I mean, I don't want to look I'm not trying to be Mayor Wu right now and get in trouble and say you know, we're praying for the. I'm not trying to be that person, but it's just like you watch these like court shows and you see these little court verdicts and things that come down and you know that it was out of a fit of rage. Somebody acted. Know that it was out of a fit of rage, somebody acted.
Speaker 1:Normally they have been, you know, pretty good citizens and all that but they let something take them into this dark place man and all of a sudden, they're now spending the rest of their lives behind bars for a singular incident, and I just can't help but think that they you know how much does it torment you to ask and figure out oh my, why did I do that? Why did I approach it this way?
Speaker 2:you know what I mean yeah, yeah, the regret, man, the regret that some people probably feel is oh my goodness, man, I can't imagine. You know, and, and you know, and there's, there's you know different degrees of this stuff. I mean there's, there's genuinely bad apple type people who are just you know, a menace to society, but then, like you said, david, there's some who who truly had just a moment of you, you know, just bad judgment out, you know just rage and and something that's completely out of character for them, and now they're paying a multi-year prison sentence, you know, for it, or whatever. It's sad. It made me think of a scripture Actually, I was. I was thinking about this earlier in Proverbs 16. Ryan, if you don't mind going there, because this one, this is one of the scriptures I use to try to keep myself in line.
Speaker 2:Before I got saved and, david, you might remember this from way back in the day, but I used to have a very bad temper. Like I had a horrible temper. Man, like just would go off. The least little thing can make me snap if it was the wrong day, and I would normally break stuff. You know, punch a wall, break a window. You know I was. I was kind of a, a vandal of sorts, uh back in the day. But um so you know, I had to. By the hand of God and by the grace of God that stuff kind of got worked out of me. The more I got into the things of God I started realizing that's not a good way to live.
Speaker 2:Number one but um, but yes, at the end of Proverbs 16, last verse, um, this is one of the scriptures I think about quite a bit. It says actually verse 32, I'm sorry, 32, it says he who is slow to anger is better than a warrior, and he who controls his temper is greater than one who captures a city. And I was like, dude, the ultimate control is self-control. You know, that's like if you master that, you're doing okay. But I'm telling you, man, I thought about that. I was like, wow, if you, if you lack control of your own self, lack control of your temper, you leave yourself exposed, honestly. And there's another scripture I think it's in Proverbs 17, maybe, but it says he that has no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is without walls. You know, a city broken down and without walls, something to that effect. So it's like God's trying to show us this lack of. Is that at the end of Proverbs 17? Let's see, try that.
Speaker 2:Last verse in Proverbs 17, ryan, let's see if we get there. Oh, I was close, not the same one. Verse 27 is good, though. A man of knowledge restrains his words and a man of understanding maintains a calm spirit. So you've got that side of it as well. It's like part of restraining yourself in anger moments is also restraining what you say. You know, I know David. I know you and I both have had times. Especially if you've been married for a while, you have times where you say something that you wish you would not have said.
Speaker 2:I'm telling you, man.
Speaker 1:Marriage will give you a good opportunity to practice too.
Speaker 2:Yes, a thousand percent, dude. I can't tell you how many things I've said that.
Speaker 1:I totally regret, dude, but you see, you don't appreciate marriage like you should, because marriage is actually shaping you.
Speaker 2:Yes, it is.
Speaker 1:It's helping you to be a better, a better, stronger person than you ever thought you could be.
Speaker 2:And that's the thing with marriage, man and I heard this guy say it this way he said if there's any selfishness in you, marriage is going to get it out of you, and then if there's anything left, having kids will get that out of you.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh yes.
Speaker 2:I was like that's a doggone truth man.
Speaker 1:Yes, it is Philip, as I'm digging in here and looking at this section in my commentary. It says here in Galatians fits of rage means a passionate outburst of anger, or hostile feeling means a passionate outburst of anger or hostile feeling. Such displays of uncontrollable verbal violence should not be excused as the product of, as some people say, an Irish temper or just a natural propensity to fly off the handle. We make excuses for people, but it goes on to say such fits of rage are a form of conduct unbecoming to a Christian.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:They drag us away from God and the promptings of his spirit and further enmesh us in the works of the flesh.
Speaker 2:That's good man. It made me think of something too that I remember from a long time ago. I was born in April, so my horoscope sign was Taurus and I'd always heard, and just a general thing back then was, you know Tauruses have bad tempers, you know it's the bull, you know they just have this anger issues and so, honestly, I bought into that, just didn't even try to, you know, try to be different than than what that was saying. I was and I'm like, well, I'm a Taurus man. I get mad easy, you know, and that was kind of my thought way back in the day before I was saved. And then you get saved and realize, number one, all that stuff's a bunch of hoo-ha.
Speaker 2:But then number two you can do something about it. You know you can use the word and rely on the Holy Spirit living in you to help kind of transform your behavior and get that mess out of you. And all of a sudden you know, as you let the word work in you, it's like you're able to exercise patience you never had before things like that. It's just a matter of yielding to him, recognizing what he's trying to lead you and prompt you certain ways and go okay, instead of me just fighting against him, I'm actually going to listen and do what he says and then after a while those things just start getting purged out of you. It's a process, but it's a beautiful thing when you can look back at it and go, wow, I'm really not the same as I used to be.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And I'm grateful for that every day, man, because I was a rambling wreck like Georgia Tech.
Speaker 1:That's true, sorry. Thank you, phil, for that. I don't know what we would have done without that for the night.
Speaker 2:We needed that appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Oh, anyway, let's jump to the next one in the series, which is after strife comes seditions, seditions now the word seditions here, uh, in the commentary, and even, and uh, if you'll pull that word up, ryan, it means selfish ambition ambition.
Speaker 1:Sedition. It has to do with selfish ambition. And then as we dig in a little bit more here into what that selfish ambition could be I'm sorry, ryan, I hit the wrong word because I needed my screen a little bigger Strife there we go. Sorry, there we go. Selfish ambition it comes from the Greek word erotheia and it means selfish ambitionife and rivalry. Here's that word rivalry again man uh, we looked at that last week when it came to um variance yeah uh, that there was that spirit of rivalry and pride that was associated with that.
Speaker 1:And here it is again in talking about selfish ambition and its definition is selfish ambition, strife, rivalry, meaning the seeking of followers and adherence by means of gifts, the seeking of followers. Hence ambition, rivalry, self-seeking, a feud factions and there's that word faction again, which was also connected with that word from last week. And when we start talking about ministries and everybody going to their corners and all of that.
Speaker 1:When we were talking about the word variance, I believe it was yeah, um, it's just, it's a similar spirit, but it's different. It's different because, look, it says it's the seeking of followers and adherence by means of gifts. So there's some, there's some honeypot on the end, if you would. That's designed to help draw people to you. It's derived from the Greek word erethos, meaning a hireling. Wow or laborer for hire, which implies working for personal gain, you know my dad always taught me that word hireling was a bad word.
Speaker 1:The corresponding Greek it says while there is no direct Hebrew equivalent for Arathia, the concept of selfish ambition can be related to terms like oh gosh. Makaloketh, meaning look, we never proclaim to be Greek scholars. Makaloketh that's what it is, I believe meaning division or contention, and riv meaning strife or dispute In the.
Speaker 2:New.
Speaker 1:Testament Aretha is used to describe a self-seeking attitude that leads to division and conflict.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:It denotes a spirit of rivalry and ambition that prioritizes personal gain over communal harmony and the well-being of others. This term is often associated with negative behaviors that disrupt unity within the Christian community. Wow, wow, selfish ambition, take a run at that.
Speaker 2:Phil. This is one of those things, one of those behaviors that is completely antithetical to being a productive Christian Period. I think James says it's like James 3, maybe it says if you have envy and selfish ambition in your heart, glory not and lie not against the truth. And he was saying that those types of things come from the wisdom that is earthly and not spiritual. Where is that at? Earthly and not spiritual? Where is that at, Ryan, if you don't mind going to James 3. There it is. It says verse 14, but if you harbor bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast in it or deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come from above, but is earthly. Such wisdom does not come from above, but is earthly.
Speaker 2:Now listen to this unspiritual and demonic, he was saying. If you're a person operating in bitter jealousy I venture to say to competitive jealousy, like we talked about earlier selfish ambition in your heart, he said, that's wisdom that is earthly, unspiritual and demonic. Because there are people who operate from a motive of selfish ambition and they may be very good at getting what they want by way of manipulation, by way of deception, by way of, you know, clever kind of subterfuge, whatever you want to call it. They're a. They're able to find a way to get ahead and excel through means that are definitely not ethical, you know, and many times not moral, and that is what the Bible calls earthly, unspiritual and demonic. A demonic type of wisdom, because you're able to get some things out of it. It produces something for you. So there's a tinge of wisdom there. If you want to call it that, like the ability to to apply knowledge and information and stuff, uh, but it's it's. It's the motive that it comes from does not come from god. So I don't want to operate in that kind of wisdom. God's obviously not a fan of it.
Speaker 2:And if we read further in James 3, if you don't mind pulling it back up, Brian he contrasts that wisdom that comes from selfless ambition. He said in verse 16, for where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every evil practice. So, dude, I mean, if people are operating in this kind of that selfish ambition, it's going to end up producing all kinds of evil works. That's where you get the backstabbing from. You get the lying and getting people fired from their job or all kinds of crazy stuff going on, and that typically comes because you're basically trying to get for yourself at the expense of everybody else something interesting that the commentary talks about here is that this is a term derived from the political culture of ancient gree, where it meant office-seeking or canvassing for office.
Speaker 1:Although many godly men and women have been called to live out their Christian vocation in political life, it is also true that politics attracts those persons given to self-promotion and self-service rather than the service of others.
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness, and not much has changed, huh, david.
Speaker 1:No, not at all. It goes on to say for such political animals, climbing the ladder of success or manipulating the process for personal gain is all a part of self-seeking lifestyle. That's a really damaging statement. A self-seeking lifestyle Wow. While such characteristics are bad enough in secular politics, they are especially corrupting to the community of faith, whose Lord and Savior modeled the opposite of this vice.
Speaker 2:That's right, man.
Speaker 1:He came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. So one of the things I hope you're seeing is that one of the things that you can begin to flesh out about these no pun intended flesh out about these works of the flesh is that they are opposites of the characteristics of God. God doesn't want you to be self-seeking and live a self-seeking lifestyle. He wants you to lay down your life for others, and it's a completely. He constantly keeps presenting two completely different ways of living. And I just think it's worth noting for the believer, if you want a list of yeah, we're talking about walking in the spirit, but we're clearly gleaning something from understanding what the works of the flesh are, absolutely so it's not in vain that they're written here and exist for understanding.
Speaker 1:And I would like to say this one other thing about digging into the works of the flesh and finding out what these words really meant, or let me rephrase that or what they should have meant to us. And that is because, at the time when this was written, the people in that day knew exactly what Paul was talking about. They weren't needing to look through a commentary or Greek dictionary or thesaurus a Greek thesaurus to find out what things meant they understood it. It is for our benefit that these other materials exist so that we can take a peek into understanding it how they would have seen it and understood it in that time, so that we can understand it in the same way and better glean how God is calling us to live.
Speaker 2:Amen to that.
Speaker 1:So don't think you know, because I think Philip and I were talking about it last week. You know, it seems like when you walk through some of these words, you know when it says wrath, it doesn't really mean wrath, it means X, but when you come over here to X, it really means wrath and it's. You know, it's not a word jumble. It's not a word jumble, it's just how it was written and how it was interpreted through time. And going back and clarifying the interpretation of it for our benefit and digging into the greater meaning of that, and you also have to realize there was a bridge, that was needed, a bridge so you can understand what was being said, but also the need for a deeper understanding to again get clarity in what those words meant. Philip, any final thought here, as we look at finish, looking at strife and this concept of uh, sorry, I just lost this self-service, the self-seeking lifestyle.
Speaker 2:Just one quick thing because I wanted to follow up on that James scripture, the James 3 scripture, just to kind of show the other side of the coin, because we talked about you know what the wisdom that's earthly and unspiritual and demonic looks like. But then he does give us what God's wisdom looks like in verse 17. He says but the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peace, loving, gentle, accommodating, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. So just from the sound of all those words, just from kind of the first ideas that jump into your head when you read those words, they definitely don't seem like anything that's self-seeking, selfish or malicious in any kind of way, you know. And so to me it just shows just how stark of a contrast it is between God's wisdom versus the worldly wisdom that many operate in.
Speaker 1:That's good, philip. That's really good. Let's pick up our next word. Let's look at the word seditions. As we're looking at the sins of animosity in Galatians, chapter five, we're in verse 20. As we look at this word sedition, we're looking at a word that means actually dissension. These are these are very similar words, so let's pull up. I'm gonna. I'm sorry, ryan, I'm pulling up on my screen really quickly, just so I can have a little bigger font. So it comes from the word Dacostasia, if I got that right. I just want to get credit for it, so please applaud me in the chat.
Speaker 1:I wish you had the little heart thing.
Speaker 2:I could credit for it. So please applaud me in the chat.
Speaker 1:I wish you had the little heart thing I could give you a heart. Drop a heart for me for just trying. I understand that heart means. Oh, bless his heart. He tried.
Speaker 1:There you go there you go, thank you, thank you, so it comes from the word. The definition is division, dissension, or listen to it. See, there's a threat happening here disunity, and so we just saw disunity in the area of self-seeking, selfish ambition. That part of what it does is it creates a disunity in the body of believers in the church. It comes from the compound of disha, meaning apart or asunder, and and stasis, meaning a standing or rebellion. While there's no direct Hebrew equivalent for diacostasia, the concept of division can be related to terms like oh there we go again. Makloketh, meaning division or dispute. As seen in the old testament, the term dicostasia refers to a state of division or dissension, often implying a separation into opposing, opposing factions or parties here it is again factions and parties.
Speaker 1:We just can't get away from it in this animosity piece. I mean, I think it's fair to say, philip, we see it so much in these definitions. Now it just seems like one of the things that you can expect when you're dealing with these sins of animosity is that they're going to be sides, they're going to be factions, there's going be party a, party b, party c and party d and they're going to be at war with one another and it's going to involve fits of rage, outburst, a lack of self control. They're going to be those who are going to be trying to recruit from the other sides to make their side bigger. You know, does that all make sense?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1:That's wild. It says the concept of division can be related to term I got that already refers to a state of division or dissension, often implying a separation into opposing factions or parties. In the New Testament it is used to describe the discord and lack of unity that can arise within a community, particularly within the body of believers. It is often associated with works of the flesh and is contrasted with the unity and harmony that should characterize the Christian community.
Speaker 2:Wow, Wow, Goodness. So we see right there. I like that it says this the unity and harmony that should characterize the Christian community.
Speaker 1:I think it's safe to say, David, there's not a lot of that going on right now. And you know, we did talk about that kind of a little bit at length last week, just even the condition of the modern, the current church, the modern church, and just how divided we seem to be and how, you know, I had a situation where my wife and I we do marriage counseling and stuff like that and we had a marriage group and you know we went and met with our. We were a part of one church. We went to another church to meet the pastor and invite him to participate in and, let you know, let us be a part of bringing some healthy marriage stuff to his church. And he just came right out and said, you know, what church do y'all go to? And we said the church we've been to. And he's like, oh, that church. He's like, why can't you come and be a part of my church? And it's like, because God didn't tell us to be a part of your church.
Speaker 1:But you can have us as part of your church by letting us help heal marriages in your church. And just I find, philip and I know you have different but similar experiences churches don't even like to work together. They're so afraid.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's fascinating. Honestly. There's like almost a territorialism that happens with churches and kind of similar to, like the Bloods and the Crips you know there's. It's just this unnecessary too.
Speaker 2:It's completely unnecessary. But there's this whole thing about you know, like what set you claim in. You know what church you part of man. But there's this whole thing about you know, like what set you claim in you know what church you part of man and and I think there's a little bit too much maybe pastor worship honestly that produces that. You know there's, there's people that take a lot of pride in how their pastor preaches and teaches, and maybe they have a very dynamic pastor or whatever it is, and so they're, they're kind of proud of that. And then, and these other churches don't have what we've got, and you know, the other five churches are saying the same thing about their ministry, you know, and so it just gets. It's kind of silly.
Speaker 2:We got to stop that stuff. You know the Bible talks about in Romans 12, how each of us has been given gifts according to the grace of God that he put in each one of us. And you know, we're all going to be, we're all going to be approaching this a little bit differently, based on how we've been gifted and graced to do what we do. And it's again we go back to this thing about comparison, david, it's like I mean all of a sudden we're into that territory again. It's not good.
Speaker 2:We got to stop all that man. We got to stop all that man. And we got to recognize too that there's assignments sometimes and lanes that people are called into, that others are not. You know, not everybody is going to be the anchor leg in the baton race, you know Right. So we got to, we got to be careful about that man, because otherwise we're putting wrong expectations on people for stuff that God didn't even gift them to do and then judging them by that thing, and it's like you know how come they don't do like this church over here? Because they're not that church over there, you know. So, anyway, I could go on, man, but I'll just stop for now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, if we're being honest, phil and I know you'll be honest too one of the churches we used to go to together the church we went to together one of the things that I would say is honest is that inside of that church, we lived in a bubble.
Speaker 2:A thousand percent yes.
Speaker 1:And you know, in our, our world, our pastor was everything. And look, he was great, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying in an ugly way, um, he was a very strong teacher of the word, but our pastor was everything. He was the greatest at everything. There was nobody else around him but him. You know, that kind of thing and that kind of spirit pervade the, the atmosphere of the church. Yeah, and then you would go out and I would. I would be surprised because I know why I didn't pick up on it earlier. I'd go out somewhere and somebody say, oh, what church do you go to? And I say, well, I go to so-and-so, uh. And they're like, oh, where's that? I'm like it's down here and pastor so-and-so. And they're like, oh, where's that at? I'm like it's down here at Pastor So-and-so. They're like never heard of him. And it's like this is global.
Speaker 1:This is international. What are you talking about? Right, right, and we were so deep in the bubble that we so deep in the bubble that we, I think that we may have unknowingly kind of separated ourselves and missed the opportunity at that point to fellowship, connect and grow with other believers in other places, because we were just sure we had the best word, we had everything yeah we had it all, so why would we need you, right?
Speaker 1:why would we need your church, right? It's such a. We were wrong, yeah wrong, and we were immature yeah that way, because, as I've, as I've grown in christ, what I've come to realize is that and Philip, I think, realizes this too is God has people who teach such good word all over the place.
Speaker 2:You better believe it.
Speaker 1:God has people who can do this thing and that thing all over the place, and he'll set up shop with great word, great music, a great church, and all of that in places you had no clue even existed on the map.
Speaker 2:That's right, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And you just have to be open and I think that if we are going to conquer these spirits of sedition and and strife and variance and emulation and all of this good stuff, we've got to come to the table with open hearts, recognizing again it goes back to humility, realizing we don't know everything, we don't have everything. We can always benefit from the gathering of other believers. Even though you don't just do so in the sense willy-nilly, you still use your discernment and you still use caution. You get to know a group before you start revealing things and letting things out and all of that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:But God wants us, as a body of believers, to be connected, not separated. And so many of us are separating instead of connecting.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I just pray that we will grow out of that and grow into our global churchhood. And even though we may attend individual churches we need individual churches because different churches meet different needs and God calls different people to different places to do things but that doesn't mean we're not all supposed to be connected together. The joints fit fit together, each supplying what the other needs that's right and something.
Speaker 2:Um, one of my favorite bible teachers ever is a guy named chuck missler. I know you've heard me talk about chuck many, many times. Um, he's going home to be with jesus now but, um, he taught the bible for over 50 years and one of the things he said that always just I mean it stuck with me since he said he was talking about this very issue. It's stuck with me since he said it. He was talking about this very issue of unity in the body of Christ and the different you know kind of factions and stuff that pop up. And he said I think he actually got it from like one of the early church fathers, kind of quotes or whatever but it said in the essentials, unity, in the non-essentials, liberty, but in all things, charity.
Speaker 1:Say that again.
Speaker 2:I love that man. In the essentials, unity, in the non-essentials, liberty, but in all things charity. And to me that's probably the best way to approach different elements or areas of the body of Christ where maybe that's not the best way to approach. You know different elements or areas of the body of Christ where maybe that's not what you're used to or that's not you know the church that you belong to. But you can at least agree we all know Jesus died on the cross for our sins. You know that's one thing that should be a non-negotiable, no matter what church you go to, and and and. So I just think it's a good rule of thumb.
Speaker 2:That way you're more inclined to not get into judgment mode immediately or or get high minded or other stuff like that. You can just kind of, like you said David, stay in humility about these things, because nobody has a corner on the market. Okay, not. No one church has figured all of it out and no one pastor has taught everything that could ever be taught from the word of God. You know, we, we gotta, we gotta be careful about this stuff, man, and humble ourselves and realize that we all have our part to play. We all have our lane we go in and let's just stay in our lane and do what we do and be loving and respectful of others that may not be on that same path, basically.
Speaker 1:That's good, philip. All right, everybody, we've got to put a bookmark on this right here. We've gotten pretty deep into this. We've got four more works of the flesh to get through Two more in the category of sins of animosity, and then two more in what are called the sins of temperance. Yes, that's going to be a good one too, philip. Before we go, let's quickly pray for everybody. Let's just pray to help them to break the power of disunity and all of this selfish ambition and self-seeking, and to seek first the kingdom of God.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir, yes sir, Heavenly Father, we just give you praise, first of all, for being the God who has called us into one body. You said there is one Lord, one faith and one baptism, one God and Father above all, and who is in us, all that are in him, and we just give you praise for that, lord, and we want to echo the same prayer that Jesus prayed that we may be one, even as he and the father are one Lord. I know there's tons of different division and different factions and different elements and parts of the body of Christ and not all agree, that's for certain. But, lord, I pray that we will, that anybody under the sound of our voice right now, any listener or viewer of this podcast, that you would speak to our hearts in terms of how we can move towards a place of humility even more, in terms of how we treat others in the body of Christ, in terms of how we view ourselves, that we would be just clothed with humility, like first Peter talked about, that we would not venture outside of the things that you have established for us in terms of how to walk in love, how to treat others and love others as Jesus loved us.
Speaker 2:Help us with that, father. We know that it's so easy to get into things like judgmentalism, criticism and things like that, and then I know I've been guilty of it before and I pray, lord, that you help all of us with that that we could defer to the Holy Spirit in times like that, instead of going with things that are more of the flesh. We just ask you for that, father, and we thank you for your help with this. We know that we can't do it by ourselves. We thank you for the help of the Holy Spirit and we give you praise for this and for wisdom, father, to walk this path that you've laid out for us and to see our part in the things that you've put together, and we give you praise for all this. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen.
Speaker 1:Amen. We are so glad that you've joined us tonight. We're glad to study with you. It's always great to study with others, thank, you Lord.
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